Chapter 2
Chapter Two
Twist. Twist. Pull.
Ribbons of blood slowly rolled up my arms toward my elbows. My pillows were stained with dark red dots and down by the foot of the bed, beneath my ankles, were large copper blotches that had seeped into my gray comforter. The tan ropes tied around each of my wrists and ankles looked as if they had been dipped in red wine.
Twist. Twist. Pull .
I’d repeated that process over and over again—rubbing away my skin against the splintering rope as I did.
How long had it been since Mr. X had tied me to my bed and left me? He had brought me in here when it had still been dark outside. The sun was up now. It had been up for a while.
Twist. Twist. Pull.
My eyes were glued to my open bedroom door, feeling as though Mr. X would appear at any moment. I tried not to let my eyes drift to the tips of Shayla’s white sneakers. He had slit her throat just outside my bedroom. Her body was still where she’d fallen. She was dead. There was no denying it now. I had tried to get help—tried to escape. But every window and every door I’d tried had been nailed shut. The only one I hadn’t tried was the front door. Mr. X had caught me before I could.
I had a feeling that was the only way out.
Twist. Twist. Pull.
Strangely, the pain of my nerves rubbing against the rope had numbed. Was it my need to escape—my adrenaline blocking out the one thing that could slow me down?
Twist. Twist. Pull.
I had no idea when Mr. X would come back. I wouldn’t let myself think about what he would do to me when he did.
Twist. Twist. Pull.
I had to get out of here.
Twist. Twist. Pull.
The rope around my right wrist slid up around my hand. I held my breath as I pulled on it again and the rope squeezed over the rest of my hand, passed over my fingers, and I was free. A new surge of hope rushed through me.
“Oh, Shiii…loooh!” Mr. X sang, his voice echoing from down the hall.
The sound of shoes slapping against the ground pulled me up to just beneath the surface of consciousness.
“Shi!”
“Shiloh!”
Voices called out to me.
I knew those voices.
Faintly, I could feel hands on me, rolling me over onto my back. I desperately tried to open my eyes. I thought I might’ve. Or it could’ve all been a dream. Very good dream. One of Knox kneeling beside me and Colt, Creed, and Keelan standing behind him. All of them were looking over me worriedly.
Knox’s hands cupped my cheeks. “Shiloh?”
I couldn’t form the words to respond. The only thing I could do was keep my eyes open for short periods, and it was a battle each time.
“What did this fucker do to her?” I thought I heard Creed say.
“This is the guy that’s been bothering her,” I heard Colt say.
“What the fuck, Colt?!” Keelan snapped. All of them started arguing and I couldn’t follow.
Knox’s hands patted my cheeks. “Keep your eyes open, Shiloh.” I hadn’t realized I had closed them. “Shiloh!” Knox yelled and I felt him shaking me. “Open your eyes, damnit!”
I tried.
Sirens in the distance was the last thing I heard.
The front door was in sight as I crept toward it. I strained to listen for any sound that would give me a hint of where Mr. X was in the house. I heard nothing. Just the hum of the air-conditioning blowing through the vents.
Ten more steps until I reached the front door…nine more steps…eight more…
The wood floor creaked under the weight of my foot. My whole body tightened up as the sound echoed through the silent house. With my heart booming in my ears, I took a quick look around, bracing for him to jump out. When he didn’t, I zeroed in on the front door. It was my only hope—my only way out. I rushed the remaining distance, my pace quick and no longer quiet. I lifted my hand, reaching for my freedom.
My fingers barely brushed the doorknob when a hand grabbed me by my hair and yanked me back. I let out a loud, broken scream as my back collided with the front of Mr. X’s body.
“I can’t let you go.” His cold voice was devoid of emotion.
That made me pause. In the nick of time, I caught sight of his knife coming up toward my throat. I caught his wrist and forearm with my hands before the knife could reach me.
He pulled my head back harder, exposing my throat. I let out a strangled grunt as I fought against his strength. His knife inched closer and closer as my arms weakened.
Think!
I took the risk to look around, desperate to find anything that would help me. There was nothing close.
Think!
What would Logan do? I thought back to the few self-defense moves he had taught Shayla and me on our last trip to Texas. We had been at the beach. The memory of Shayla’s laughter echoed in my head; she’d pretended to stomp on Logan’s instep and dropped to the sand, squealing as she’d crawled away from him. She hadn’t taken Logan’s lesson seriously but had humored him nonetheless.
I pulled myself back to my horrific reality. With the last bit of strength I had, I pushed Mr. X’s blade back a little, then slammed my foot down on his. The moment his grunt reached my ears, I dropped to the floor, losing a good chunk of hair in the process. I refused to let the burning on my scalp slow me down. I shot back to my feet and hurried for the door.
“No!” he bellowed behind me before a searing pain sliced across my shoulder blade. Crying out, I stumbled and fell against the door. I grabbed the doorknob to keep me from falling completely to the ground. I twisted it, the door swung open, and I felt the warmth of the sun on my skin for only a breath before his arms locked around my waist. Lifted into the air, I thrashed and screamed as loud as I could, hoping anyone might hear me with the door open.
Then I was airborne. The air was knocked from my lungs as my spine slammed against the wooden stairs. Mr. X braced himself above me by holding himself up with one hand on the step behind my head. “You are mine!” he roared in my face. Spittle hit my cheeks and his rancid breath filled my nose. My breath hitched. Not from the smell. But from the excruciating pain that exploded in my stomach.
He stabbed me.
His knife was buried in my stomach. Time slowed as he withdrew. His eyes were dilated, emotionless, pitch-black depths as he stared down at me. Blood clung to his black and gray stubble along his jawline and chin. “No one else can have you,” he said, sounding detached as he plunged the knife back into my stomach.
I didn’t know why I put my hands on his shoulders as he withdrew the knife again. I didn’t know why I met his eyes or why I asked him, “Don’t you love me?” I didn’t know what possessed me to say that, but it made him pause and I could have sworn I saw regret in his eyes. I took that as my chance to ram my knee between his legs. He made a choking noise. His hand that was holding him up gave out and he fell on top of me. Shoving him to the side, I rolled off the stairs to the floor. With a hand pressed to my bleeding abdomen, I forced myself to my feet.
I made it out the open front door into the blinding sunlight. “Help me!”
Eyes flying open, I shot up from where I was lying and pressed my hands to where Mr. X had stabbed me. The first thing I saw was Keelan. He was standing next to the bed I was lying on. He put his hands on my shoulders. “Shilo?—”
“Help me!” I begged him, trying to climb out of the bed, but his grip on me kept me where I was. “He stabbed me.” My voice shook as I spoke. I pulled my hands away from my stomach to show him the blood. My hands came away clean. There wasn’t any blood in sight. Even the light gray shirt I was wearing was spotless and intact. No—it wasn’t a shirt. It was a hospital gown, and I was in a hospital bed.
I quickly glanced around the room. Another surprise was that Knox was standing at the foot of my bed, staring at me with his signature frown.
Glancing back down at my trembling hands, which weren’t covered in blood, I doubted what I was seeing. “He stabbed me,” I said again. It had just happened. I had felt it. I had felt the knife tear through my skin and bury itself deep.
“Shiloh,” Keelan said gently.
I heard him. I just couldn’t take my eyes off my hands. I didn’t understand. What was happening?
“Shiloh!” Keelan barked, startling me out of my trance. I met his wide, golden-brown eyes. “You weren’t stabbed, baby girl.”
Knox finally spoke. “I don’t think she’s talking about what happened with Jacob.”
“Jacob—” I started to say, when the door leading into the room swung open.
“The coffee tastes like shit,” Creed announced as he walked in. Colt came in next, a step behind him. They were carrying two Styrofoam cups, which I assumed were filled with coffee, in each of their hands. Both looked weary. Once they saw me, though, they perked up.
Colt opened his mouth to say something, but snapped it shut as he took me in, then Keelan and his hands still on my shoulders. “She looks scared,” he said, setting down his two coffees on the small rolling table that was at the foot of the bed.
Keelan dropped his hands from my shoulders. “She just woke up.”
“Nightmare?” Creed asked as he came to stand on my left, next to Keelan.
“Yeah,” Knox said.
Moving to the right side of the bed, Colt sat on the edge and pulled me into his arms. My whole body went stiff. That was, until I breathed him in. His smell…it was comfort. I buried my face in his shoulder and my body relaxed with a shuddering breath.
“I’m safe,” I said out loud.
The left side of the bed dipped and a hand grabbed one of mine. I knew it belonged to Creed.
Creed squeezed my hand. “You’re safe, Shi.”
I squeezed his hand back. “Jacob—” My voice trembled. I remembered everything that had happened. Leaving the gym. Finding one of my tires flat again. Jacob showing up, offering his help, and when I’d declined, he’d become insistent and then violent. “He—” My whole body shivered.
Colt’s arms tightened around me. “He’s been arrested.”
That was good. “I fought him.”
“Yeah, you did,” Keelan said. “You choked that bastard out and I’m so proud of you.”
“Not before he drugged me,” I grumbled, pulling away from Colt. “He wanted to…” I glanced down at my lap. “It doesn’t matter.”
“Yes, it does, and it’s not okay,” Knox said firmly.
No, it wasn’t okay that Jacob wanted to rape me. Why didn’t that knowledge shock me? I tucked my hair behind my ears and bent my knees to my chest. “How long have I been here? A few hours?”
They glanced at each other.
“It’s eight in the morning,” Knox answered.
Shocked, I kicked off the blankets. “I’ve been here since yesterday!” I leapt forward and clambered around Creed to get off the bed.
“You’re giving us a great view of your Deadpool underwear,” Creed said.
I whirled around to face them as I closed the back of my gown. “Logan is going to kill me.”
“Because you flashed us?” Keelan asked, fighting to hold a straight face.
I will not blush. I will not blush.
“Because I missed my check-ins. Again.” I spun back around and searched for my purse. It and my clothes were in a clear plastic bag on one of four chairs in the room. I quickly scooped up the bag, but paused as I took in the chairs. Four seemed like a lot for such a small room. Turning back to face the guys, I asked, “Did you all stay here with me?”
Colt stood from the bed. “We stayed until visiting hours ended. They only allowed one of us to stay after that. So the rest of us hung out in the waiting room until they let us back in here.”
Someone could have knocked me over with a feather. I was so shocked, yet so happy. Possibly the happiest I’d felt in I didn’t know when. “Who stayed in here with me?”
Colt, Creed, and Keelan all glanced at Knox.
“It doesn’t matter who stayed in here,” Knox grumbled.
I was getting ready to throw his words, “yes, it does,” right back at him when he said, “I called your uncle.”
My heart skipped a beat. “What?!”